Page 69 of A Tale of Two Vikings

“Aaarrgh!” he said.

Another typical male reaction.

“’Twould seem there is only one way to shut your teeth. I will show you how much of a lamb I am.”

If he hits me, I am going to hit him back. Lot of good it would do, but I will anyhow. She braced herself.

With one smooth move, Toste picked her up, tossed her onto the clean straw in the empty stall and came down on top of her.

All right, no hitting. What then? Esme wasn’t sure why she’d provoked the Viking so much. Anger, for a certainty, that he ordered her about like a wooly-witted milkmaid. Retaliation for his heavy-handed tactics. Fear that he planned to leave her. Envy that Eadyth and Alinor obviously got something wonderful from their men. And stubborn determination that, before he left, she would get one more taste of the man to satisfy the hunger he’d kindled with just one kiss. Oooh, that last item just slipped in and stunned Esme with its implications. Definitely a weakening of control, if she let it go too far.

“You torture me, m’lady, and I am not a man accustomed to being tortured,” he whispered against her ear, then blew softly into the whorls.

She barely fathomed his words, so wonderful did his breath feel in her ear. She girded herself against his temptation and said, “Don’t go tomorrow. Stay here with me…for a while.”

“I have to go sometime. Tomorrow is as good a time as ever. How long would you want me to stay?” The whole time he spoke, he was nibbling little kisses from her ear to her chin and back again.

Delicious was the only way to describe the sensation of his cool lips on her hot skin. “Tykir and Eirik will go to the Witan for me. I trust them to do that. If the Witan denies my petition, I expect my father will demand my immediate deliverance into his hands. Tykir and Eirik could then petition for the return of my mother’s lands to me before I am turned over to my father’s custody. I’m certain that the Witan would not act on the petition at that session…probably they’d wait another month. That would give me till February, only one month from my twenty-fifth birthday. Can’t you wait till then?”

“Two months? That’s all?” he asked sarcastically, raising his head. He had gone back to kissing and blowing in her ear. He gave his attention to her surcoat now, parting it with his left hand and using his right hand to begin unlacing the neckline of her gunna.

She should stop him. She would, in a moment, once she’d said all she had to say. “Nay, that is not all,” she said with a gasp as the backs of his fingers grazed the bare skin of her upper chest. “I would want you to form a bird of soldiers for me…a hundred should suffice, for a start. Mercenaries would be the best choice, I think. While we are waiting for the Witan’s decision, we could establish ourselves at Evergreen.”

He had stopped peeling back the neckline of her gunna and was gaping at her. “Why would I do all that? Especially, why would I set aside my own goal—avenging my brother’s death—to participate in such a foolhardy plan?”

“I would make it worth your while.”

“Oh, really? How?” He made a pointed sweep of her body with his cool eyes.

Surely he didn’t think she was offering that. “I would make you castellan of Evergreen. Once I regain my funds, I will pay you handsomely.”

“I would think so!” he said. Then, after a moment of pondering, “It matters that much to you?”

“It matters desperately to me. I would do anything to outwit my father and regain what is rightfully mine.”

“Anything?” He arched his brows at her.

“Do not tease me, Toste. I am not worth that much.”

“I beg to differ. I have wealth aplenty. I am jaded enough to find appeal in bedding a nun. You would wear your nun outfit, wouldn’t you?” He grinned down at her.

He couldn’t be serious. It was another jest on his part. Surely it was. But she had to ask. “You will do all that I ask in return for just one coupling?”

“Nay, nay, nay!” he said with a laugh. “I did not say that. It would have to be more than one coupling.” He appeared to find much humor in that word. “I would expect you to share my bed furs for the entire time I work for you, or till I grow bored. All without the legal bonds of matrimony, of course.”

Of course? Ooooh, the insufferable, overblown lout. I should slap his face and walk away. Right now. This instant. But wait, Esme—mayhap it would be worth the sacrifice if you could regain Evergreen. And be honest with yourself, it might not be such a great sacrifice. You could close your eyes and plan your next day’s work schedules whilst it is happening. “So, is it a deal, then?”

“What?” The shock on Toste’s face that she would acquiesce so easily was priceless. “Nay, it is not a deal. Not yet. I mean, holy bloody hell, dost know what you are offering?”

“I do, and it would be worth the sacrifice if the end result means my return to Evergreen.”

“Sacrifice? You consider making love with me a sacrifice?”

The consternation on his face was equally priceless. Really, men and their overemphasis on their bedsport reputations! As if women cared about such things!

But ’twas best to be diplomatic when her future was at stake. “Mayhap sacrifice was too strong a word. But you must agree, men get much more out of the event than women do.”

“Oh, I do not know about that. Some men have the expertise to give as good as they get in the event.”